New Feature: Competitive PlayOverwatch is raising the bar for competitive players, giving them the perfect arena to sharpen their skills and hone their strategies. Introducing Competitive Play.

Competitive Play is designed for players who truly want to put their skills to the test, and offers a more serious experience than our Quick Play or Weekly Brawl! modes. To make sure everyone playing the mode has a solid understanding of the game’s mechanics, maps, and heroes, Competitive Play will be locked until you hit level 25.

Once you reach level 25, the mode will become available under the “Play” button in the main menu. Simply select "Competitive Play" from the submenu, and you’re ready to enter a match. You can join on your own or in a group, and Overwatch’s matchmaking system will automatically find the best game possible for your (or your group's) skill level.

Competitive Play is live right now! To learn more about this new feature, click here.

Added an option to adjust Aim Assist strength (defaults to full strength)

Miscellaneous

"Weapons" section added to the Hero Gallery

Added McCree as an AI hero in Practice vs. AI, Play vs. AI, and Custom Game modes

Disabled "Avoid This Player" functionality and removed option from the game UI

Developer Comments: The "Prefer"/"Avoid" player system was designed with the best intentions; however, it's not currently performing in a way that we feel is healthy for the game. While the "Prefer This Player" option is more or less working as intended (and is thus still enabled), the "Avoid This Player" option has impacted the matchmaker in negative way and led to some very poor player experiences across the board. Although we like the idea of being able to say "hey, I'd prefer not to play with this person," the implementation of the mechanic is not where it needs to be. We're still looking at ways to iterate and improve upon features that empower players to reduce toxicity and harassment in their games; we just want to be sure these features don't accidentally punish positive community members as a side-effect.

Recovery time (i.e. the amount of time before McCree starts reloading) decreased from 0.75 seconds to 0.3 seconds

Bullet damage decreased from 70 to 45

Developer Comments: McCree was performing too well against all targets, making him feel like a must-pick in many situations. By reducing the damage of his alternate fire, McCree is now significantly weaker against tanks like Roadhog and Reinhardt, but still maintains his lethality against smaller targets like Tracer and Genji.

Players must now wait for the unscoping animation to completely finish before scoping

Infra-Sight

Ultimate cost increased by 10%

When activating Infra-Sight, Widowmaker's voice line will now be audible map-wide

Developer Comments: In the right hands, Widowmaker can often feel unstoppable—even when just landing body shots instead of critical heads shots. The changes to her alternate fire weaken body shot damage while leaving her headshot damage unchanged. Additionally, we felt her Ultimate ability, Infra-Sight, was coming up a little too frequently, especially considering its impact on the game.